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NTSB To Investigate Near-Collision At O'Hare

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Jul 25, 2006 6:25 am US/Central

NTSB To Investigate Near-Collision At O'Hare

Planes Were Within 300 Feet Of Hitting Each Other

CHICAGO (CBS) ― Investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board will be in Chicago on Tuesday to investigate another close call at O'Hare International Airport.

A United Airlines jet and a cargo plane were just seconds away from crashing into each other late Sunday on the runway.

NTSB investigators plan to interview the pilots and review data from the cockpit voice recorder.

The FAA is blaming controller error for the incident.

This is the fifth time a close call is on record at O'Hare this year involving planes on the same runway or violating the rules of separation. Disaster was only seconds away.

United Airlines flight 1015 was departing for Denver about 10 p.m. Sunday when it flew over a Boeing 747 cargo plane that had just landed on an intersecting runway.

An Atlas Air 747 landed on runway 14 right. It crossed the intersection of runway 27 left. That's where United Flight 1015 was just taking off. The two planes came within 300 feet of hitting each other.

"This was much too close. You have to realize, 300 feet would be a football field. But how would you like to have a football field between you and absolute disaster traveling at 130, 140 mph?" CBS 2 Aviation Analyst Jim Tilmon said.

No injuries were reported.

United's Boeing 737 was carrying 120 passengers and five crew members, said Brandon Borrman, a spokesman for the Elk Grove Village-based carrier.

"The flight departed safely," he said.

The airline says it will cooperate fully with the investigation.

The Federal Aviation Administration, which estimated that the planes came within 300 feet of each other, said in a statement that controller error was to blame for the incursion.

"The FAA has begun an investigation into this controller error, but at this point, the severity level has not been determined," the FAA said in a statement.

So far this year, five runway incursions have taken place at O'Hare out of approximately 540,000 total flights, the FAA said. Seven such incursions occurred at O'Hare last year.

Wendy Abrams, a spokeswoman for the city's aviation department, says the incidents are rare, considering the airport handles roughly one million flights a year.

"This is abnormal," she said.

"O'Hare has a tremendous safety record, and the controllers who manager our air traffic are among the best in the world," Abrams said in a statement.

(© 2006 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)

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